Piracy is Good: The Moral Imperative of Sharing Knowledge

I doubt they do not admit they want and enjoy shit for free.

Before arguing for the ethicality maybe come up with a solution or at least disapprove the new media piracy.

There is no solution I can think of, unless something radical like UBI. Also I can't disapprove the new media privacy, because I find it more positive than negative. Some people losing money (negative), me not getting beaten up on the street for fun by teenagers because they are bored (positive).

One of the arguments for pirating new media is the demo effect. If you want to play a game, you don't want to spend money then realize you don't really enjoy it. Used to be a standard, now demo versions are non existing. Bought a few games after finishing them and enjoying. Same with movies.

If pirating wasn't illegal a lot of industries would die. So let's keep it illegal and unethical, so people actually purchase the products that keep these industries alive and thriving.

You fail to realize that piracy is what is actually contributing the most behind the scenes. Artists gain more from exposure than to direct purchases of their products. If piracy was illegal many musicians wouldn't be so famous/well known because not so many people can/are willing to make a purchase in order to discover something. Actually going to concerts and buying merch contributes to musicians much more than buying their songs for $2 on the Apple Store or whatever. Music labels and distributors keep the majority of the revenue anyway.

Also what you actually call "stealing" is actually just sharing digital data. Nobody is taking away anything from anybody. It's not a physical good with limited availability. The people who pirate digital products wouldn't be buying it regardless (for whatever reason that might be, it doesn't matter), essentially it doesn't make any difference to the creators. The difference between purchasing a game for example and the difference between pirating is the same as the difference between purchasing the game and NOT purchasing the game. Let's not even get into DRMs where they make the experience worse for paying customers by tanking game performance. Or forcing to always be online to play single player games. The list can go on and on.

Pirating in 2023 is the only ethical way of consuming media. I'm done paying greedy corporations for a ridiculously fragmented entertainment industry where an individual has to subscribe to different services just to watch different seasons of the same show because they somehow decided to remove content I wasn't done watching. Or renting a movie on Prime Video just to find out I need to purchase a specific device to watch it in HD when my machine is more than capable of playing 4k.

The only way I'd pay for digital content again is if they provide some sort of convenience over piracy. I happily pay for my Spotify subscription because it is actually a good service, at a good price and most importantly it's convenient! I can listen to whatever song I want from one single subscription using only one app on my phone.

I used to pay for YouTube premium, I downloaded a bunch of videos to watch offline while on a trip where I knew I didn't have internet access only to find out that in order to watch the videos I downloaded I needed to be online in the past 3 days. So I couldn't even watch them because of some nonsensical, anti-consumer policies. So I downloaded a third party app that gives me premium features (and more) that allows me to actually watch videos offline.

I came here expecting to get tips on piracy and instead I saw a bunch of people claiming they were doing God's work. Insane.

You came here looking for tips but you're getting a reality check instead. I think it's awesome.

No what's bullshit is you coming to a place about piracy while not believing in the free exchange of media and information. It is unethical to prevent people from doing so not the other way around.

But stealing from people who actually want to monetize on the content they created? (...appeal to emotion...)

It's not stealing, it's copying data my dude. If they want to monetize on software, they can completely. SaaS exists and it's everywhere. Me downloading a piece of software and running on my machine doesn't actually cost them anything either. And they are not losing sales, because I would not have bought it otherwise. I dislike being forced to pirate, and would love my fellow friends not being forced to use Photoshop for example just because it's an industry standard. It's closed, it's very limiting, but they can't use Gimp due to limited collaboration possibility after, so using a pirated piece of software to convert to and from correctly just to work with it seems more than reasonable.

I came here expecting to get tips on piracy and instead I saw a bunch of people claiming they were doing God’s work. Insane.

I know it seems insane, but there are other schools of thought than the dominant capitalism model we live under. Religious communities also seem insane. For bloody sake Kopimism also exists. The problem everyone sees is that your only argument is lost sales (which is valid and correct under capitalism) and there are other points that must be acknowledged. Some may argue, they are more important than what money can measure.

For one laws don't decide what is ethical or not. But for two you can still make money working on FOSS. There are donations and companies like Valve for instance pay for the development of proton and DXVK. Etc.

I mean, what's the point of arguing if you have yet decided things cannot be different than how they are now?

There are tons of example of free open source software made by regular employer as a full time job. Tons of example of artist (writers, actors, filmmakers, game developer) that share all their works for free and rely on donations, patreons or other kind of strategy to sustain themselves while keeping access to their art free for everyone.

It's definitely possible, and it would be incredibly better if whole industries would shift to this and more people would shift from paying/services to other methods of contributing (accordingly to their availability).

Why do you think it can't be made? What we are going to loose? Million dollars budget movies/videogames? Million dollars marketing campaign? I don't see how is it a bad things.

Exactly. Some people are a little ignorant, and that’s completely fine and understandable. Humans aren’t all the same. Some like to educate themselves about a certain topic, while others learn something else.

That is perfectly okay. We should ultimately respect everyone’s opinions (Only reasonable opinions based on their current level of knowledge) because it’s not in everyone’s interest to know everything about, say, pirating.

Some like to glorify it and publicy fight for it, because they don’t know any better or are just like that.

Furthermore, you and I know that the vast majority of us, pirates, sails discreetly. Most know that for the system to remain easily pirate-able, it’s prudent to do so hidden in the shadows.

The key is to blend in with the crowd. You are just one ordinary person among many. You don’t draw attention to yourself.

“That’s the [Pirate Sailor] way to learn.”

• Master Roshi

I don't know why people even feel the need to justify themselves here where anonymity is a thing.

I just don't find it constructive to assume everyone does something for the same reason, it just doesn't seem to make sense to me, that as well as defeating the point of any conventional structure.